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Messages - Faldred

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1
General Discussion / Re: For those who lose CDs/Keys...
« on: November 02, 2010, 11:53:16 am »
This is good to know.  I've been looking for some way to replace my lost CDs (I have the manual with the codes, but not the CDs themselves).

2
General Discussion / (For PnP players...) Boundless Horizons open alpha
« on: August 31, 2010, 02:54:26 pm »

   
Quote:

   
   
      
   
   

         
            

               Originally Posted by ycleption
               View Post
            

            
I haven't got a chance to look at it... but it would be nice if you offered it in a single pdf, rather than a whole bunch of separate documents.

         
      

The final version will be a single document (or two, depending on space considerations for print versions).  For development/alpha test, this is far more manageable, unfortunately.  (As the keeper of the master documents, believe me, I tried having just one file, but it was simply unmanageable during the development process.)  When everything is ready for typesetting, a single document will be generated.  That aside, I know it's possible to take the individual PDFs and merge them... I just need to find the right software to do so.



Edit: I know it's not the same thing, but the files are available as a single ZIP archive, if it's just the downloading that's the issue.

3
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: Does ESA add up to the ability bonus cap?
« on: February 26, 2009, 12:00:44 pm »
Of course, there is the slightly abusable loophole that NEGATIVE ESA adjustments should, in theory, be able to be offset by more than +12, because the +12 cap is to the base score, not the ESA score.

4
Just for Fun / Re: 4th Edition DnD: What it is and what it isn't.
« on: December 17, 2008, 07:56:41 am »
Disclaimer: I don't have the 4e books and I've only played briefly a few times, but I have followed 4e with decided interest, so I'm not completely uninformed.

The first and foremost thing to bear in mind is that D&D 4e is not D&D 3.x.  It simply isn't the same game.  On a superficial level, they share some commonality, and at the most basic mechanical level (roll a d20, add modifiers, and determine the result) they can claim to be equivalent, but that's pretty much it.

What's Good

4e is much better designed from a "balance" standpoint than 3.x was.  One could say it was "splatbook creep" that made 3.x broken, but honestly, some of the most "broken" stuff in 3.x is in the core PHB/DMG/MM.  (That's not to excuse montrousities like Complete Champion for their role in wedging the crack open into chasms...)

It looks to be much easier to learn and to play an effective character.  Multiclassing and prestige classes as we know it from 3.x is gone, and the value of each feat is considerably less than in 3.x.

The "experience point budget" method of encounters appears to be vastly superior to the 3.x challenge rating system, which really didn't work as well as it should have.  It is now possible to have a battle with a large number of weaker creatures and have it actually be a serious threat to the party.

The game appears to have a larger "sweet spot" in terms of levelling where the characters are balanced and effective, but not yet overpoweredly broken.  The 4e level 1-30 range is roughly equivalent to the 3.x 5-20 level range.

What's Bad (or at least, not so good)

4e is much better designed from a "balance" standpoint than 3.x was.  The drawback is that the "feel" of an arcane "striker" vs. a martial "striker" is considerably less pronounced than in 3.x (e.g., compare 4e Warlock and Rogue vs. 3.x Sorcerer and Rogue).  

Multiclassing and prestige classes as we know it from 3.x is gone, and the value of each feat is considerably less than in 3.x.  In 3.x, coming up with interesting character by mixing and matching classes, PrCs, and feats is almost a game in and of itself (the Character Optimization boards at Gleemax take this concept to the extreme).

The effects of magic are dramatically lessened.  While this plays into the balance that is designed in, it seems odd that the standard D&D tropes are subverted so that you could have an equally effective party regardless of powers sources used.  That is, as long as you have a "leader", a "controller", a "defender", and a "striker", it matters not at all that none of them may use an arcane or divine power source (e.g., they could all be martial).

Skill challenges are a neat idea (very much like conversation trees in NWN), but the fact that they had to tinker with it immediately after release tells me they didn't think it through properly.

The "sweet spot" mentioned above does remove the gritty danger of lower-level play in 4e.  There is no mechanical way to represent "farmer loses family in orc raid and takes up arms to fight the menace".  You can include that in a backstory, but at level 1 said farmer is already a "hero" who is set apart from most mortal men.

On the whole, the feel I get from 4e is that it is truly a game centered around tabletop tactical combat with minitures.  While 3.x can get like that, it really is impossible to play 4e without a tactical map, whereas it can be fudged away in 3.x.

5
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: Weapon Master Feats
« on: November 13, 2008, 02:09:05 pm »
Quote from: ycleption
Just to be clear, the 10 PrC level rule is an NWN limitation, not a server rule.

It's a D&D 3.x rule, too.  No PrC (except some weirdos in Unearthed Arcana that are "prestige" version of base classes like Paladin) has more than 10 levels pre-epic.

However, in theory you could take two PrCs for a total of more than 10 levels pre-epic, but then you run into the server rules with regards to approvals and required CDQs, etc.  I'm not sure if there's any NWN limtation there, but I don't think there is.

6
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: Character Build Calculator
« on: October 31, 2008, 09:59:34 am »
Savefile.com is a good place to host files of this size -- as long as there's activity.  If the file isn't accessed for a while, they remove it.

All that aside, I haven't been working on this for some time.  In fact, ironically, I removed my local copy of the file just in the last week doing a cleanup of old (unused) files.

7
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: Greater Magic Weapon
« on: October 08, 2008, 10:58:12 am »
Remember, in D&D, you ALWAYS round DOWN.

8
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: larger clarification of being chaotic?
« on: July 30, 2008, 02:01:17 pm »
Not to self-promote too much, but you might want to check the thread "On The Nature Of Alignments" in the Roleplaying forum.

In short, is the character primarily chaotic or primarily neutral?  That goes a long way into determining how it is played.

The other thing to note is that chaotic characters aren't necessarily random or anarchistic.  They can have token support for law and tradition, unless of course it suddenly becomes too much of a hassle or inconvenience.  (This is typically true of the CN character who is primarily neutral.)

Also, on neutrality between good and evil, note that that doesn't mean you can alternate between "good" and "evil" acts at will.  It takes an awful lot of good to compensate for a small amount of evil.  At most, the "neutral" character will perform minor evil acts (low-grade mental or physical abuse, "using" someone for personal gain, etc.) instead of the outright evil stuff (slavery/domination, murder, and such).

The "CN problem" is that too many folks simply think it's a license to do anything, specificall evil acts, and say that it's excused IC due to the alignment, as long as there's a corresponding "good" act as well.

9
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: Question about characters / lvl spread
« on: July 26, 2008, 01:20:12 pm »
There is pretty much a rule against the Rogue 4 / Fighter 15 / Rogue 1 split.

As for what is allowed and what isn't, unless things have changed significantly since I was doing approvals, nothing is disallowed, although certain combinations (Monk / Druid is one, I believe) is looked at quite warily because of ease of abuse.

As with any single class submission, the background and character concept have to justify the multiclassing (i.e., why *must* he or she be a Fighter / Rogue instead of straight Fighter or straight Rogue?) and, as with any other complicating factor in a submission, requires more work from the submitter.

There is no rule, as far as I know, against multiple prestige classes, but they are extremely rare, given how difficult it is to obtain one prestige class and how much IC development would be necessary to qualify for and logically develop into two.

10
Just for Fun / Re: DnD 4 edition
« on: June 05, 2008, 10:08:04 am »
The new SRD is due to be released tomorrow.  From the preview materials so far, color me unimpressed.  It looks like a nice, streamlined, tabletop tactical board game, but by naming it "Dungeons & Dragons" they invite comparison to previous versions.

So, comparing it to D&D 3.5, it looks like all characters are basically now Complete Arcane style Warlocks or Tome of Battle style martial adepts, but with fewer character options.  Balanced, streamlined, but ultimately lacking in flexibility.

That said, I'll be reviewing the SRD quite thoroughly from a semi-professional interest due to my work with fledgling publishing studio Victorious Press.

11
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: ESA & Subraces
« on: March 24, 2008, 01:08:46 pm »
The subrace skin bonuses do apply against the +12 and -12 ability modifier caps, as well, from what I've seen in game.  (Which can be used both to your advantage and not.)

12
General Discussion / Re: Gary Gygax has passed away
« on: March 04, 2008, 03:30:00 pm »
Just goes to show what one failed saving throw can do to you...

Rest in peace, Mr. Gygax.

13
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: Making True
« on: February 29, 2008, 11:57:44 am »
Quote from: Nehetsrev
If you posess a skinning knife, wild game such as deer and boar can yield meat as well.  After you've killed an animal, look to see if it has a 'skinnable corpse' and then equip your skinning knife to skin the corpse.  Once you have some meat you'll need flint (good for 20 uses) and tinder (1 use each) to build a campfire over whch to cook your meat.

Just to be clear... with a decent Fort save, the cooking step is quite optional.  Certain characters have been known to wolf down raw meat as their primary diet.

14
Roleplaying / Re: Intimidation?
« on: January 24, 2008, 01:46:13 pm »
Quote from: jrizz
The half giant is 7 feet tall and over 400 pounds the halfling is 4 feet tall and 80 pounds. Without a incredible and public show of power/prowess/skill the half giant just will not be intimidated by the halfling on words alone.

I don't know about 3.0, but in 3.5, there's a +/-4 modifier for each size category difference (in this case, a modifier of 8 between a half-giant [large] and a halfling [small]).

15
Roleplaying / Re: Intimidation?
« on: January 24, 2008, 08:49:28 am »
While it's good to have fixed ways of doing things, sometimes there should be multiple options specified as well.

Countering Intimidate with Intimidate makes sense, of course.  If someone tries to intimidate you, you can try to offset that by being more intimidating than they are.  Whomever is scarier, wins.  

On the other hand, you could just try to resist the intimidation, and that's where the level check plus Wisdom/Fear modifiers come into play.  As Intimidate is a Charisma-based skill, it's counter should be Wisdom-based.

In any case, as with any other opposed roll on "social" skills, be sure to think about what reasonable modifiers would be for the situation, and have both parties agree to them before rolling it out.  This is also one of the times where I think degree of success/failure should be represented by the difference in the opposed rolls -- when the hulking menace says "step aside", if you fail your opposed roll by only a couple, you simply step aside, but a huge failure could be represented as perhaps cowering and simpering.

16
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: Eschew and Meta magic feats
« on: January 16, 2008, 01:56:18 pm »
Quote from: Stephen_Zuckerman
Aw... That's how it SHOULD work, at least. *Sulk, sulk.*

Actually it's based on innate spell level, regardless of what spell slot is used to cast it.  IIRC, there are some 3rd level Sorc/Wiz spells that are innately 4th level spells, because they're Cleric 4th level spells as well.

17
General Discussion / Re: Thinking of submitting a new character?
« on: October 01, 2007, 12:49:41 pm »
Actually, if I had the time, I had already drafted up a half-Giant Cleric of Grannoch.  If anyone wants the backstory, etc., as a baseline for themselves to work with, just let me know.

18
Roleplaying / Re: On the nature of alignments
« on: July 18, 2007, 01:57:51 pm »
According to the base rules, a Paladin who loses favor with their deity becomes a "fighter without bonus feats", losing all class features in the process.  From a roleplay standpoint, it may be possible to leave Paladinhood and still retain any earned benefits, if the reason for leaving the class was "OK" with the deity, i.e., becoming a Cleric, Monk, or certain prestige classes.

The general exception to the "lose all abilities" rule is if the character then becomes a class that has rules for "fallen Paladins", e.g., Blackguard.  In those cases, Paladin levels are "traded in" for equivalent features in the new class.

As for the alignment issue, this dates all the way back to AD&D 1st edition, when the 9-category alignment grid was introduced.  Paladins are the prototypical "knight in shining armor", symbolizing truth, justice, goodness, and the like, and as such have an absolute LG alignment requirement.  Variant rules from Unearthed Arcana allow for Paladins of Honor (LG), Freedom (CG), Tyranny (LE), and Slaughter (CE).

Alternatively, the Divine Champion prestige class allows for Paladin-like abilities for characters of any base class and alignment, as long as they are in tune with the deity of choice.

Okay... pen and paper rules aside, NWN and Layonara work differently.  In NWN, you can freely multiclass Paladin with any other classes, and you do not lose any gained abilities if you change alignment or otherwise perform acts that would strip your Paladin's abilities.  This can lead to otherwise nonsensical builds like Paladin/Bard or Paladin/Assassin.  The only restriction the engine places on you is that you may not level up as a Paladin if your current alignment is not Lawful Good.

In Layonara, the roleplaying restrictions go a little further.  Multiclassing into or out of Paladin is generally a one-way street, and must be done by a successful character development quest (CDQ)*.  Paladins must not only be LG, they must specifically worship one of the five deities who have Paladins: Aeridin, Lucinda, Rofirein, Toran, or Vorax.  Divine Champion is only allowed for Toran or Vorax.  Blackguards are not allowed, and are renamed Unholy Champion (CE only, which explains why they are not allowed).

If you lose Paladinhood in Layonara because of a falling out with your deity (alignement change or otherwise), you are generally expected to NOT use any of your Paladin abilities that require active use (Lay On Hands, spellcasting, Smite Evil, etc.)

*Exception: certain Paladins of Lucina may freely multiclass as certain specialist Wizard

19
Roleplaying / Re: On the nature of alignments
« on: July 18, 2007, 11:14:27 am »
Quote from: Cenden Hoqoun
but what if a paladin where to be so lawfull it wasnt good?

Well, (s)he wouldn't be a Paladin for much longer, most likely.  :D

Seriously, though, if dedication to "Law" becomes that severe, you are looking at an alignment shift to "Neutral Lawful", using the above article's conventions.  That is, devotion to rule of law, tradition, order, what have you, takes precedence over issues of good and evil.

20
Ask A Gamemaster / Re: swapping DT s
« on: June 22, 2007, 03:21:56 pm »
Yeah, yeah... excuse me for waxing poetic...  :p

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